Bend man admits to fraud involving plane-making co.
A 73-year-old Bend man pleaded guilty Monday to one federal charge of wire fraud for a scheme involving a Bend plane-making company.
Fred Schrameck II, also known as Rick Schrameck, entered the plea in U.S. District Court in Eugene to a scheme involving his consumer aviation company, Aircraft Completion Services LLC (ACS), federal prosecutors said.
According to court documents, Schrameck and others solicited customers to purchase and help build experimental aircraft, including the EPIC LT, using three companies, Aircraft Investor Resources LLC (AIR), Epic Air LLC (EPIC), and ACS. According to purchase agreements, customers paid more than $1.4 million for the Bend-manufactured aircraft.
Prosecutors said Schrameck, who was the former Epic Air’s CEO, gave customers Airframe Purchase Agreements and Aircraft Completion Assistance Agreements that misrepresented how the customers’ funds were being used. Without his customers’ knowledge, they said, Schrameck used the funds for other projects, to complete existing EPIC LT aircraft, and “to support his own lavish lifestyle.”
Schrameck faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, a $250,000 fine and three years’ supervised release. He will be sentenced on Tuesday, August 14 before U.S. District Court Judge Ann Aiken.
The case was investigated by the FBI and IRS Criminal Investing (IRS-CI) and is being prosecuted by Scott E. Bradford, Assistant U.S. Attorney for the District of Oregon.
Epic Air, which shut its doors in 2009, was purchased and renamed Epic Aircraft the following year by a group of former customers and a Chinese aircraft company.
